Dispatches from the new Russian empire

Meet Eino! He is making cranberry jam/sauce/juice.

Meet Eino. He is holding a bowl of mashed cranberries. He is my host brother. He is 6’2″, weighs close to 220 pounds and is an accountant. Eino likes to read about the history of Russia, say sarcastic things in Russian that I don’t understand and play chess.

In fact, he went to chess school. I know this because one night we played chess and at my every move he would laugh and say “Kristina, whyyyyy?” He knew why once I took his king in checkmate.*

According to his mother, Eino does not drink or smoke but I have seen him do both. In fact, one night we took a friendship shot of cognac together.

Eino tends towards the jeans and suspenders look and just bought a new pair of shoes. Sometimes when we are walking around Saint Petersburg, I pretend that he is my bodyguard. In fact, he would make a very good bodyguard.

Eino has also gone to ballroom dancing school, taken lessons in Finnish, English and German and is a good Christian.

He is not sure if he can eat more than 100 blinis.

Here are some more pictures of the cranberry jam/sauce/juice making process.

*Early into the game, Eino started telling me which pieces to move and where to move them to. Effectively, he won the game for me. I still call that a victory.